Communion Message
(Is anyone among you sick?)
April 24-25, 1999
Pastor Don Sheley

For I have received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me. In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

As your pastors, in serving the congregation day after day throughout the week, we have the joy of ministering to people in various situations and needs of life, and we follow very closely and if there seems to be a tendency, a certain concern that is developing, we as a pastor staff try to respond. And I say that in the context of what we're going to do now in just a moment of time. We're going to have prayer for those who need healing. The last couple of weeks a number of folks have stopped by our office and they've expressed their desire for prayer for physical needs, and we've done that, and we've invited them to come to the service today. 

In our last service there was a lovely lady, she's new with us as part of our family. In talking with her, she comes from a segment of our Christian church, the Christian church that does not publicly pray for people with regards to physical healing, and she came to me and said, Pastor, would you pray for me? I'm sick. I have cancer. She said, I've been to the doctor and the hospital, and I've had the operation, but she said I'm on chemotherapy and she said I really need God's touch. That lovely lady was here in the last service. She came forward for prayer. Now we want you to know that we're not of the theological school of thought that we can demand God to heal. Or if you're not healed, there's something wrong with your faith. We don't hold nor except either one of those teachings. We think they're false. We do know this, that God is a sovereign God and whatever He does, He does for our benefit because He loves us. I would at times that I could pray and demand of God to heal, but I know I can't. 

This past week, a friend of ours who came to our church some 37 years ago, a lovely young mother with a number of children and we dedicated those children, the family moved to Hollister and we've missed them for years, but they've been very, very active in their church there. Little Chrissy; I held her in my arms and dedicated her 36 years ago, but she was rushed to the hospital the other day, to Stanford. Her liver had stopped functioning. They worked hard. It was a matter of days and then hours. Chrissy went home to be with Christ. She left three children. I would to God that I could have said, God You must heal Chrissy, but I can't. We leave the whole matter to God. And so when we have a prayer service, we're not here demanding anything of God. We're just here as simple people trusting Him. We know that the Bible says in Hebrews 13:8, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And we can only believe that if He healed, which He did 2000 years ago, we can trust Him for healing today. I know that in the field of theology there are those that say that healing was not intended as a result of the atonement. We simply believe that it was, and there's not only spiritual healing, but there's physical healing as well. 

Now we do it very, very simply. We want to do it as scripturally as the Bible makes it clear to us, and so if you're here today and you wonder exactly why were doing what we're doing, and how we're doing it, we're going to do it just like Pastor James, who was the first pastor 2000 years ago of the first Christian church in Jerusalem. Pastor James laid down the pattern for how to conduct a healing service. And here's what the Bible says; Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. 

So you're going to come today in just simple, sacred commitment. Stand here with us and bring your elements, your communion elements, and we'll share together. Pastor Leighton and Pastor Ralph are going to anoint you just like the Bible says, the anointing of oil. And we're all going to pray, and then we're going to leave the results to God, and we're going to trust Him for some wonderful healings. We've had them here. We've had people standing here who were scheduled were for cancer operations on Wednesday, and just in a simple act of trust and believing in Christ as healer, that person was healed entirely. I could go on and on. We're not demonstrative. We're not here to make a show out of this. We're not here to push people over. We're just simply here to do what the Bible says; bring our needs, be anointed, be prayed over, and then trust God for the results. Amen. So if you need a physical healing today and you'd like to come, please come to the altar. Bring your emblems. We'll wait for you then we'll all anoint you and pray together. Okay? Now Jesus said when He took the bread at communion time, He said, this is My body. And you and I know that Isaiah the old prophet said, it's with His stripes we are healed. Those stripes were born in His physical body that was nailed to that cross. So I'm going to ask you to do this, just take your break with me and hold it heavenward. Would you do that? Just a simple act of faith.

Lord Jesus, as we stand here in Your presence, we believe that there on the cross You not only paid the price for our spiritual healing, but You provided for us as believers physical healing, because Your word makes it very clear that with Your stripes we are healed. We believe that. And so Lord Jesus, we hold the bread and we present our needs to You; our physical need. We need Your touch. You made us. You know all about us. You can make perfect that which is imperfect. You can heal that which is diseased. You are the same, Jesus, today as You were 2000 years ago. You never changed. We just believe that. So here's our need, and we trust You for Your healing. Let's take the bread together. And Lord Jesus, we hold the cup. Your word says that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness, there's no remission, there's no cleansing for sin. So You shed Your precious blood at Calvary so we could have forgiveness; spiritual healing. We thank You for that today dear Jesus. Let's drink the cup together, shall we? Then I'm going to ask you to do one thing, just raise your hand as high as you can with me. Say this prayer: Lord Jesus. We've come this morning. We've presented our need to You. We've been obedient to Your word. We've been anointed. We've been prayed for. And we're going to trust You now for the victory, and for the miracle, and we'll give You all the praise, and all the glory. Thank you Jesus. Amen. God bless you. Let's greet one another, shall we?